Welcome

Welcome to the POZ/AIDSmeds Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and
others concerned about HIV/AIDS. Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the
conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning: Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive
and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a
username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own
physician.

All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators
of these forums. Click here for “Am I Infected?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ/AIDSmeds community forums.

We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please
provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are
true and correct to their knowledge.

Carl, as always, you have great talent, I don't think it'll take luck to get you hung in the gallery, just a gallery owner with some sense!

Jan-as usual, awesome work.

Joel, interesting-ceramic shirts-cool! Digital thing, yeah....

Joseph- I'm not an art critic in any way, but I know what I like. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the first pic in your photo essay!!!!!! It was an incredible shot, and a great feeling of serenety fell over me when I saw it.

Just finished this one..I'm still trying to perfect my tiger technique..I did this by following Bob Ross instructions..I still don't have the colours right and I over blended the top of the head so it looks a bit muddy...but I will keep trying until I get it right.. I used a mix of oils and acrylics, maybe that's where I went wrong.

Joseph- I'm not an art critic in any way, but I know what I like. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the first pic in your photo essay!!!!!! It was an incredible shot, and a great feeling of serenety fell over me when I saw it.

Thanks!

I posted all of the pictures for the sailboat essay - because it was a condition set by the group, that all of the pictures I had taken be made available to them. I'm still working on my website to showcase photographs that I'm particularly proud of (there were only two in that photo series that I had given the link to).

My background is mainly in weddings and event photographs. I DO NOT like posed photos. Here are a couple more pictures that I took over that same week:

I'm so impressed by everyone's artist ability on here! Unfortuately I don't have much artistic ability: I can't draw, paint, sculpt, sing, etc. I do enjoy my digital camera and have been trying to improve my photography skills. I've been reading books and would like to take a class at the community college. Here are some of my photos.

It is so great to see such an amazing array of talent here - and such a variety of work being shown - fantastic.

i've just worked out how to make my digital camera take pics that aren't huge Mb sizes so I'm attaching a couple of other pieces of work.

Before I started painting dots (see earlier posts) I did lots of black ink doodles - nearly all of these large pieces were done in the first couple of years of my diagnosis so i think it was definitely the outlet for my feelings; and probably reveals rather more than I realise!

The other pic shows an oval bowl which I painted dots onto - I have a vast collection of hand painted ceramics which all got the 'dot' treatment! Plates, bowls, vases, platters - all just taking up space in a cupboard now which is a shame but maybe one day i'll get around to setting up a website to sell some stuff.

The more that I see posted here, the more impressed I become. The variety of artwork on display here is amazing, everyone has a different eye for art and the different aspects of art shown here are a great cross section. I would love to be able to take pictures as beautiful as some of the ones posted here. When I do manage to get a good shot, it's usually due to accidental circumstance, rather than deft camera work... Keep it coming and let's see what others have in store for us. Capt.Carl.

P.S. I went to the Gallery yesterday, but it was closed because of the snow that we're having....11 inches and counting. A new record for Albuquerque!

This isn't really art (duh...) but I like to show people colors I use because they're always off. I'm partially red/green color-vision deficient so I've always selected the brightest, gaudiest colors I could see. The rest of the 100 crayon pack looks like a blur of almost identical colors so I go by name.

rusty nails 20rusty nails 22seeds 10seeds 22

Boo

Logged

String up every aristocrat!Out with the priests and let them live on their fat!

Assuming the question is aimed at me (and I'm always certain every comment is intended for me!) it's not art because it's crap I did while under the influence of mind-altering substances. It's just dabbling.

Boo

Logged

String up every aristocrat!Out with the priests and let them live on their fat!

This is an obvious nod to Warhol. I took this picture with a cheap 35 MM camera in 1989 and cropped the head out of the original photo, colored each frame separately and had it professionally printed to 3' x 3'. The subject of the piece is a good friend of mine who was a boy "at the time of the photo" and is now "transgendered" (preop). Color makes me happy!

If I'm ever feeling a little down in the dumps, all I need to do is break out the box of Crayolas and put a few strokes of magenta and blue on the paper....ahhhh....better.

I tried to be frugal with Christmas shopping this year, so one of the things I did was to pull out the paints and dabble with recyclables.

Those are beautiful, Basquo. Do you do jobs on commission? I'll take a set of 4 of either, or maybe 4 of each. Do you have a catalog available? Do you charge Louisiana sales tax or is that my responsibility (I love the La. tax forms section for declaring unpaid taxes for Internet purchases... as if!)?

Boo

Logged

String up every aristocrat!Out with the priests and let them live on their fat!

Sorry the pictures have flash glare in them but alas, such is life in a small apartment. Also, these are bout 20 years old because after receiveing my BFA in Painting in Printmaking I moved in NYC and spent every day up in a night club being fabulous instead of making art. Maybe I should get back into it now. I have a bunch of lithographs as well if I get the gumption to pull them out and shoot them.

I actually won best of show for my senior gallery showing for the 2nd picture, which is a diptych etching.

Thought I'd share the two new paintings I've done this last month while waiting for my blood results - they didn't help the numbers but at least they kept my mind off them for the moments when I was painting.

I'm sure an art therapist could tell me what my subconscious was thinking when I came up with these two!

those are gorgeous. I'm not sure they have much impact on my numbers either but they sure do make me feel good. I love them! I was never really familiar with this style until I met you. I sure am glad you came into my life.

Some really attention grabbing expressions here. Some very admirable talent.......including Boo's work (which I think is as valid as the others).I have no artistic inclination at all. I've failed my zodiac sign, Libra.

The poem that Cindy posted was the inspiration for my first painting in nearly a year. The whiskers are real, I emptied out the vacuum bag after Scatty died to try and find a piece of him - I got lucky with 8 whiskers!

The other two smaller paintings are just me letting off steam (in that very controlled way that I do!).

I had already planned to post this today and when I read Amosboy's thread I realised that having a creative outlet for dealing with the traumas that life throws up is such a blessing.

Maybe others will be inspired to share some of their creativity again.

The whiskers are real, I emptied out the vacuum bag after Scatty died to try and find a piece of him - I got lucky with 8 whiskers!

Emma, I thought I was the only one, but I started saving my cat's shedded whiskers and claws a few years before they left me (and they left me within two years of each other.) I thought I might do some sort of design in a shadow box, but for now I've only kept them in plastic pill bottles. I have to think of some type of shrine for my babies in the new home, and I'm thinking small decorative boxes which would hold their toys, brushes, whiskers and ashes. I know that they're gone and I should bury their remains, but they were there for me no matter what and (dammit here come the tears) I don't want to move on that easily. I'm not wired that way.

I bluffed my way through Art class by turning in extra credit crap and giving it a name. A piece of paper painted completely black was, "an example of the classic beauty of the night", while the same paper completely blue would serve as a seascape.

I have found myself comfortable on both sides of a camera lens and with film an processing being so expensive, I have upgraded to digital. There is a shop in the town of Sebastopol which has a section of broken statuary. From that shop, I have chosen a headless Aphrodite and a beat up Venus, Goddess of Love to inhabit my own yard. Have the best dayMichael

It's so awesome to see everyone's artwork. While I can't draw stick figures to save my life, music is my passion and my life. Here's a link to a video of the barbershop chorus I direct, taken last year. I'm the big guy out front directing.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

It's so awesome to see everyone's artwork. While I can't draw stick figures to save my life, music is my passion and my life. Here's a link to a video of the barbershop chorus I direct, taken last year. I'm the big guy out front directing.